Ch 7 Open Learning at Work: 5 key ingredients for creating dynamic learning environments for staff

Learning environments that offer opportunities to explore, trial, play and collaborate allow innovation and creativity to flourish for all learners (staff and students).

I have just reread and reflected on Chapter 7 Part 1 of the powerful book  OPEN: How we'll work, live and learn in the future by David Price. This chapter refers to workplaces. I have  adapted the learning to suit a school setting. How can we develop a 'creative workplace' within our schools along the lines of the successful and inspiring Edison, Google & Facebook models? (page126)

Source reference - Google workplace image  

This fits with the changes we are seeing within classrooms as we move away from the traditional 'one size fits all' settings.
For example, this video explains the flipped approach to the way we have been conditioned to have classrooms and staffrooms set up in the 'same old' way for years.
It is called called Expanded Learning Opportunities 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr25oPyOUSI

Price refers to 5 key ingredients for creating dynamic learning environments:
1. Create a Machine-Shop Culture
Here is a challenge particularly for our high schools. Imagine all disciplines or subject teachers planning together and creating combined learning environments rather than separate disciplines. Thomas Edison believed that a group of people with varied backgrounds could be the most inventive.
A machine shop culture reflects the fact that 'heads and hands are equals' (p127) Everyone's skills and talents are important and they all need to be valued irrespective of rank or responsibility. Tinkering, playing and 'doing' are vital.

2. Keep it Social
Allowing chances to socialize informally in the workplace contribute to creativity as well. Are we 'wringing an ounce more of productivity' out of our teams, or are they truly loving being engaged at work? Rather than talking at people, we need to talk with people.

We have recently transformed our weekly senior leadership team meetings into Friday Forums. These are open and optional for everyone including support staff, board, parents... We have them from 8am to 8:30 with croissants. Learn more about this here:
http://jennyljackson.blogspot.co.nz/p/staff.html

3.Make learning horizontally relevant
Be open to new ideas and put them into practice quickly and easily (p131) 

Giving my staff a 'sabbatical' away from meetings, gave them the time to explore and put into practice some of our ideas. We often spend time talking, planning and proposing ideas. Yet we don't plan time to activate these ideas. We also need to allow downtime to provide the freedom to make this happen.

4. Give learners the 'right to roam' on the commons
Offer choice in the workplace and options to be involved in a range of projects, as well as time to pursue interests and passions. Don't limit opportunities to only one person but allow many to take on multiple responsibilities.Distributing responsibilities among staff helps to cover what needs to be done. How would this work if we opened our lists of responsibilities to the whole group?

5. From individual to collective, from formal to informal
Social media has transformed accessibility to knowledge through Personal Learning Networks. Informal, social learning is more powerful than formal training. Leaders need to create the right conditions for learning to flourish. Understanding the power of social 
networks can only happen if you experience it personally. I'm encouraging staff to explore Twitter and share this link to my experiences to help.

I also share my Twitter experiences on this video when I first starting following Price and learnt about the book Open. You can access it here.

We need to intentionally foster learning and build vibrant learning cultures not only for our students but for our staff, parents and ourselves. As leaders, we need to model the learning that we wish to see in others and ensure that our personal learning journey never ends.
What's the difference between creativity and innovation?
Creativity = new ideas
Innovation= the ability to produce something with your ideas

Engaging in your work for the challenge and enjoyment of it is a motivational driver for developing expertise and creativity. It must be intrinsically driven.

As part of a Learning and Change Network, we are participating of our own accord and driving the learning and change together with students, families and the community with very little financial support. You can lean more about this here. Or watch this video.

Family Learning Hui No 2 Monday August 25th

Every Student Engaged in Deep Learning for Success
The evening began with a reminder of our school wide goal:To engage every student in deep learning for success.
 Digital devices are one tool for supporting engagement in deep learning. We use a range of ways to make this happen. These thinking progressions help to explain what we mean by deep learning.

Stage 1 of 4 stages leading the children to deep learning for success

The image above is the first of four stages showing how we encourage children to think more deeply about their learning. You can access all of the stages via this link.

https://docs.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/file/d/0B5kVPCsXjRbYcWxJMEw1cUVFX2s/edit

Keeping track of multiple school blogs
Go to the google plus symbol and click on it and add the author of the blog into your circles. You will then be able to open a page of multiple blogs and keep up with the latest published news from classrooms.

A day in the life of a BYOD classroom
Mrs Frances-Rees and the manuka class presentation shows how BYOD (bring your own devices) works in a Year 7 classroom. You can access this by going to this link.
http://prezi.com/fawtp0rkm-xj/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-byod-classroom/ 

Our Year 7 and 8's have been BYOD for the past couple of years. Now we are getting ready for the other year groups to have this opportunity. By offering a reasonably priced, reliable device like the chromebook, we are taking away the need for competition that can come when children bring a range of devices to school. There will still be class devices to access for children to use but the children that own their own can take these home to continue the 'beyond school learning' experiences.
Our focus is understanding that learning happens all the time. It's not limited to just between the hours of 9-3 at school. Now the children have access to school learning via our blogs and sites at home. You as parents and caregivers also have access and can support and reinforce learning at other times. If the learning is engaging then the children are more likely to want to learn themselves.
Here is a link to a video of Year 7 students articulating SOLO learning, Key Conpetencie's & digital technology and how these engage them in deep learning http://ln.is/youtu.be/LcuU4 

 Chromebook information
Gareth and a team from Harvey Norman explained how chromebooks work. We have flyers available in the office that describe the special deals only available to schools. Families can contact Gareth or the team from Timaru and Dunedin for more advice. We have their contact details in the office. We will share more information about this at our next meeting as well.

Extras to think about before our next get together early in Term 4
Bringing our families and students together with staff, is a way to learn together. It's also a way for families and students to actively contribute towards our vision to achieve our goal for success for our students.
Our work as part of a learning and change network has encouraged us to engage about learning with our students, families and community. This is a link to a recent video that I made explaining how we can achieve much more by sharing our own knowledge and expertise together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpbjCwp-1Xw

We look forward to learning together again at the next hui planned for early Term 4. 

What deep learning and change ripples can we make together?

As an active participant in a recent NZ Learning and Change (LCN) Reference Group session in Auckland, we were asked to reflect on the nature and value of the LCN Strategy. Here are my reflections. They accompany a short video. Click here for  the link to the video.

Screenshot from the video linking the LCN strategy to self-organizing living systems.

Have you ever been part of a vibrant, energetic group of learners who seem to embody an organic whole, pulsating with energy and creating something new and exciting, no single participant could create on their own? (Widhalm 2011)

Learning experiences such as this are at the heart of the New Zealand Learning and Change Network Strategy. This is a strategy where whole communities actively connect and collaborate for the future success of priority students and their families. A strategy where the traditional supply driven, passive and hierarchical mode of professional learning is flipped into an active, ecological, lateral mode of learning.

Developing a growth mind set, believing that one’s learning abilities grow through deliberate practice, is essential for network members: students, teachers, family, school and community leaders. Believing that the expertise lies within and across the network, empowers members to actively articulate, partner and co-construct change priorities for future success for all learners.

Future success is evident through the immersion of learners in innovative, engaging deep learning environments that have the proven capacity to  increase cognitive ability and professional growth for the whole network. Forward thinking local networks transform into vibrant communities of practice. The lateral nature of these intrinsically driven networks means that all participants learn alongside one another within and across communities.

Constant collaboration within the network communities promotes a united sense of ownership and responsibility for the change priorities. Culturally responsive, continually evolving mutual relationships build trust which strengthens and propels the network further forward. Connections between networks nationally and globally ensure the capability for powerful change is strengthened in ways that aren’t possible individually.

Just as self-organising living systems maintain a state of dynamic balance, authentic agency from all participants based on evaluative reflections, continuously realign and reinforce the purpose and direction of the learning and change networks. Such is their nature inasmuch as they emulate self-organising living systems that have the capacity to respond continuously to change. (Wheatley 2011)

Individual to connected

Local to global

What deep learning and change ripples can we make together?

References

Annan, B. (2014) Learning and Change Networks Milestone 4 (final) Auckland UniServices The University of Auckland

Annan, B. Carpenter, R. (2014) OECD Innovative Learning Environments Project New Zealand Monitoring Note 2; Learning and Change Networks (LCN)

Dweck,C. (2006). Mindset:The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books

Fullan,M. (2011). Change Leader: Learning to Do What Matters Most. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Wheatley,M.(2006). Leadership and the new science. San Francisco: Berret-Koehler

Widhalm,B (2011) Educators as Architects of Living Systems: Designing Vibrant Learning Experiences beyond sustainability and systems thinking. Retrieved July , 2014, from http://www.jsedimensions.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Widhalm2011.pdf (as part of Masters in Educational Leadership studies)

6 motivational drivers that 'fire us up' and activate deep learning (Ch 6 Open)

Principles and values aren't enough, you need to have motivation for deep and powerful learning to happen (Price p107).

I have just reread and reflected on Chapter 6 of the powerful book  OPEN: How we'll work, live and learn in the future by David Price. I realize that the motivational drivers that Price refers to underpin my own continued engagement in deep learning.

Price emphasizes that these drivers don't rely on external incentives but are instead exclusively intrinsic (Price p108).

1. Do it yourself
2. Do it now
3. Do it with friends
4. Do unto others
5. Do it for fun
6. Do it for the world to see

1.Do it Yourself (Autonomy)

This is where self-determinism meets collaboration, accelerated by social networking tools (Price p109).

The online encyclopedia, Wikipedia is a good example. Individuals choose to share knowledge regardless of who they are. This is then critiqued or corrected by others and the world gratefully uses it at no cost.

I have chosen to make my own leadership and learning visible through my blog and Twitter. Nobody has asked me to do this. I am doing it myself.

2.Do it Now (Immediacy)

Learning is more powerful when it can solve an immediate problem. Price refers to this as 'Just-in-Time' learning. Finding information that provides a quick solution to a problem is more likely to be remembered than learning for the sake of learning or 'Just-in-Case' learning.

I liken this to typing a problem into 'google' and following the steps to solve it by watching a video and putting the new learning immediately into practice. 

3.Do it with Friends (Collegiality)

Learning in the Global learning commons is networked, linked-in and highly social compared with traditional, formal view of individual learning (Price p112).Twitter is now recognized as a primary source of professional development. Learn about this here. This embodies the 'knowledge lies within the group' message from (Annan) and 'use the group to change the group' (Fullan).

From video

4.Do unto Others (Generosity)

'Social learning thrives in a culture of service and wonder..'Conner 

We learn best when we do it with passion and purpose. Sharing and doing our learning for others provides a powerful motivation to learn (Price p116).

We need many ripples to form a tidal wave of positive change in education. I can either stand back and observe or I can be an active change agent and create some ripples myself.

From video

5.Do it for Fun (Playfulness)

Some of the greatest life skills we learn are achieved because of the pleasure and fun we enjoy along the way, for example, swimming and riding a bicycle.

Fun without challenge is unsatisfying. 'Hard fun' is something that all learning professionals should create. How can we harness the engagement, self-discipline and resilience, skills evident when playing video games into our schools? Learning to create my very first video using the Videoscribe programme was 'hard fun' for me but I persisted and have learnt many new skills along the way.

6.Do it for the World to See (High Visibility)

From video

We have all become journalists through digital technology such as blogging and tweeting.Public assessment of work is more powerful to students than a grade or a mark from their teacher. This has transformed our motivation to learn.
I share in my sabbatical report  and in my video that I was inspired to create my own blog and join Twitter through following the work of young learners in the Manaikalani network of schools in Auckland.

Finally, Price explains that the technology provides the tools, but it's the power of personal connections,informal learning and displaying generosity to one another, which creates the imperative to learn, and act, collaboratively (p122).

We need to seriously ask ourselves these questions: What do these motivational drivers mean for you and your own personal learning? How can we bring the richness and vibrancy of social learning into our educational settings?

What are we doing about this in Oamaru, North Otago?

We have been focusing on these drivers for some time now within our own school environment. Becoming part of a larger network of schools has helped to create a greater opportunity for collaboration on a larger scale. 

This week, we will be holding our first ever # Whitestone LCN Event and you can read about our plans here.

I will be continuing to be 'fired up' by these drivers as I prepare to read 'Open Learning at Work' in Chapter 7 of OPEN: How we'll work, live and learn in the future by David Price and share my learning with you in my next review.

Engaging in Deep Learning on Twitter with @pedagoo @PalmyTeacher

If we truly want to connect with students in ways that will activate them to be self-driven lifelong learners, then we must be authentic, deeply engaged learners ourselves. Deep learning is infectious and if the conditions are fertile, it will flourish.

This is the message I shared in a recent post I wrote for another blog. Let me explain.

Invitation from @fkelly
A week ago I received my very first Twitter invitation from Fearghal Kelly to write a post for the pedagoo.org blog. He had read my sabbatical report via a link on Twitter and tweeted:

Initially, I approached this Tweet quite cautiously by doing some googling and was relieved and then flattered to learn more about Fearghal and the innovative pedagoo.org community of teachers that he has established in Scotland. 

Pedagoo.org is a collaborative blog that allows teachers to easily share with an established community. 'Setting up a blog, building an audience and keeping it up to date can be time consuming...so just post here instead!' This is the message on the blog. There are 1,200 active members in the community on pedagoo.org. @pedagoo  have 16,000 followers on Twitter! 

I decided to write my post and link it to the changes and developments happening with regards to deep engagement in learning at our school at the moment. You can read the post entitled Engagement in Deep Learning here. As soon as the post was published, I begun to receive a steady stream of notifications from @pedagoo followers. Here is a copy of one of the tweets!

The presence of positive motivation towards a learning task markedly increases the likelihood of students engaging in deep learning (Groff 2010).  I suggest that this also applies to us as adult learners. The overwhelmingly positive response to my pedagoo blogpost has certainly motivated me to continue exploring deep engagement in learning. I am digging deep within my authentic self to explore what engages and drives me to keep on learning throughout this process.

Why Twitter?

In my pedagoo blog post I shared my motivation for joining Twitter and that I have continued tweeting @jennyljackson ever since April 2014 when I began. This was my inaugural tweet.

Without realising this at the time, when I challenged myself to Tweet, I moved out of my comfort zone into the 'unknown'. I reconnected and engaged as a learner.

There are many excellent links to why we as educators should become active on Twitter. Here is a very explicit slideshow created by @ PalmyTeacher  (a very talented teacher from Palmerston North in New Zealand) that should help convince you as future focused educators to join Twitter. How did I access this? On Twitter of course!

We have to continually dig deeply within ourselves to reconnect with our passion and love for learning as educators. Engagement in deep learning is infectious and if the conditions are fertile, it will flourish.This is indeed the message from my  video.

Through being active on Twitter we can collaborate with other educators deeply connected to their own passion for learning. When we learn to do this, we connected with our own love of learning.

If we truly want to connect with students in ways that will activate them to be self-driven lifelong learners, then we must be authentic, deeply engaged learners ourselves. Deep learning is infectious and if the conditions are fertile, it will flourish.

Reflections on Future Focused Learning with Dr Brian Annan

I am a big believer in being open and transparent about learning and have found that blogs and Twitter are ideal platforms for publicly sharing knowledge as well as learning globally from others. They also contribute to making knowledge equitable, when resourcing constraints can become barriers to learning. As long as you accept that my words are my interpretation and reflection of my experiences, then together we can create and drive positive learning and change. I also welcome suggestions, views or feedback that will support my learning. Please comment below.

I was privileged to be invited by Margaret-Anne Barnett (MOE Principal Adviser Future-Focused Learning & Digital learning Technologies) to a Building Capability in Modern Learning Practices Workshop held in Dunedin on the 3rd July 2014. 

Preparation for the workshop and discussion required us to share a 5 minute reflection on the following:

1.       What got you started? 

2.       What were the drivers? 

3.       What were the barriers? 

4.       What are you learning about the process of change?   

5.       How could change of this magnitude be supported across the system – what would you have found most useful?

Some pre-workshop reading recommendations were also shared with us:

The report released in May this year from Minister Kaye’s 21st Century Learning Reference Group, Future-focussed learning in connected communities

http://www.minedu.govt.nz/theMinistry/EducationInitiatives/UFBInSchools/FutureFocusedLearning.aspx

And the A3 summary of the NZCER report, Supporting Future-oriented Learning and Teaching: A New Zealand Perspective

http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-resources/NZC-Updates/Issue-26-October-2012

For the very keen beans, the full NZCER publication is here

http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/109317/994_Future-oriented-07062012.pdf

The workshop was facilitated by Dr Brian Annan, Programme Director of Learning & Change Networks (LCN), Faculty of Education Auckland University. An important aspect of Brian’s leadership is to encourage participants to link into global networks so as not to reinvent the wheel.(Learn more about Brian here)

Dr Brian Annan in action during the workshop

I had already worked with Brian through participation in the Southern Regional LCN days as part of the Whitestone LCN. He also gave me feedback on my recent sabbatical report.

One of the interactive activities required us to share our answers to the questions above to the whole group in 60 seconds after we had shared them for 5 minutes in groups of three. Brian actually timed each of us!

We were then able to compare this experience to the fast sharing and demand for 'just now' knowledge in today's digital world.
I was able to share my 4 minute video that encapsulates the messages from my 6,000 word sabbatical report in a time friendly manner.
The question was posed - Could our learners create a one minute video to share their learning and change priorities as a form of self-evaluation? This also inspired me to create a one minute video to share my reflections from the day. You can access it here.

Brian also emphasized that we are well into the 21st Century and that this title has become outdated. We can replace it with 'Future Focused Learning' (FFL). Here is one of many interpretations of FFL
A discussion evolved around the place of the 'instructional core' in the 'ecology of learning' I have created links to some web articles to clarify these terms. Here is the diagram that we discussed that shows where the instructional core fits into the ecology of leaning.

Screenshot from my video 

When we all shared key words from our learning by writing them onto the whiteboard, we were challenged further through role plays. In groups of three we were asked to sit in front of the whiteboard and discuss the messages on the board in our roles as students, teachers, board members and parents. This added a rich insight into our discussions and motivated participants to carry out the same activity back in their own workplaces with real students, staff and whanau.

Photo taken during the workshop

Brian explained a frame for thinking about evaluation of learning in practice. He shared an example of this based on his own experience of learning to surf. I captured this part of the session on video. Here is the link. Brian also referred to the value of ongoing informal 'interactive reflections' on learning that need to happen between students, parents and teachers.

Screenshot from my video

Brian emphasized the power of student agency that shouldn't be confused with student voice. Student's learning must be driven by their own evaluation. They must be able to articulate what they need to change to take their learning forward. This is what must drive 'teaching as inquiry'. We need to move away from teacher ownership of the learning and change ideas and practices that we believe will support change. Instead we need to enable the students to articulate and action these.

 I discussed this with Lorraine Frances-Rees, a colleague  who happened to be at school during the recent term break ! She responded with these challenging questions for our learners.

Screenshot from Lorraine's email

This is already food for thought. We will share these questions after collaboration with all staff and learners early next term.

Finally, Brian spent the last part of the day discussing and sharing ways to evaluate engagement in learning. The learning map is a way of understanding the impact of the learning environment on learners. There is an article here that explains more about learning maps in action. The idea is that we use the learning from these maps to bring about change that will lead to deeper learning and achievement.The focus of these maps is on learning to learn.

 Screenshot from the LCN  Prezie by  R Burton & B Annan

Screenshot of children drawing learning maps from Issue 4 LCN Newsletter

As Brian emphasized, 'The knowledge is within the group. We need to draw it out.'

In a few weeks time, we will be bringing the staff from three schools together and creating an informal, social learning environment to activate learning and change. We will indeed have a large group of skilled staff to learn and change with and draw our knowledge and learning from. This is only the beginning. Further learning workshops bringing students and families together are in the pipeline.

Screenshot from my video

Together our ripples will travel further than if we were on our own as we work collaboratively to engage and activate deep learning and change in a future focused learning environment for all of us. 

Chapter 5 Part 2 Engagement in learning = future success

This is the second part of my reflection and review of Chapter 5 of the powerful book  OPEN: How we'll work, live and learn in the future by David Price. In the first part of my review, I asked you to engage with disengagement as a wake up call. I shared the cold hard facts about disengagement. 

Sometimes we can get caught up in the busyness of our own planning and ideas as teachers and leaders and forget to co construct sessions with our students and staff. Although we mean well, we might repeat lessons and routines that suit us because we feel comfortable. Are we really just pleasing ourselves or are we truly engaging our learners in deep authentic learning that will inspire and motivate them and instill a desire to want to keep on learning?

 In my last post I mentioned that I was persevering with my own learning to produce and upload my very first video based on my sabbatical report - How to engage every student in deep learning for success. I am excited to be able to let you know my perseverance paid off! Here is the video that offers a few solutions to what we must do as educators to engage our learners in deep learning for success. It's also available on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSOriel49Lk

In the video, I refer to passion, excitement and motivation for learning as drivers for engagement and higher achievement. This also reflects the powerful messages from Price in both Chapter 5 and in Chapter 6 of OPEN: How we'll work, live and learn in the future

  Now reflect on this information shared by Price based on a longitudinal Australian study focused on engagement in schools .'The more children felt connected to their school community and felt engaged, rather than bored, the greater their likelihood of achieving a higher educational qualification and going on to a professional or managerial career.' They found that engagement was the key determinant of student's success 20 years later, over and above their academic attainment and socioeconomic background. 'An engaged student from  a disadvantaged background, is likely to have better life chances than a disengaged child from a better-off background.' (Page 99,100)

Price goes on to say,' I believe the visionaries of the future are likely to emerge from the kind of environments where learning is collaborative,social, passion-led and values driven, networked, horizontal, democratic and creative.'(Page 101) I challenge you to take this sentence and unpack each word and what it means and looks like in your own schools or workplaces?

In my next post, I will reflect on Chapter 6 'Open Learning in Society' in OPEN: How we'll work, live and learn in the future by David Price and the value of 'Just-In-Time' informal learning.